Blockchain 101

To understand how blockchain technology may be relevant to healthcare, it is important to have a foundation about how this particular type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) works and how it can be applied to the broader healthcare ecosystem.

DLT leverages decentralized peer-to-peer computing, cryptography, and related technology to verify and propagate a chain oftransaction records across a consortium, alliance, partnership, or coalition. Blockchain technology is based on decentralized consensus and is currently being implemented in both public and private settings.

The purpose of this section is to provide a basic understanding and framework for the use of blockchain technology; it is not intended to be an exhaustive description of blockchain and related technologies.